A sensitive young man's hopeless love for a woman already betrothed drives him to despair and suicide.
Books mentioned in The Sorrows of Young Werther (3)
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith: “I endeavoured to conceal the emotion which these words occasioned, but it was of slight avail; for, when she had expressed so truly her opinion of "The Vicar of Wakefield," and of other works, the names of which I omit”
Emilia Galotti by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: “He had drunk only one glass of the wine. "Emilia Galotti" lay open upon his bureau.”
The Poems of Ossian by James Macpherson: “"There in my drawer," she continued, "you will find your own translation of some of the songs of Ossian. I have not yet read them, as I have still hoped to hear you recite them; but, for some time past, I have not been able to accomplish such a wish."”
Books that mention The Sorrows of Young Werther (12)
Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts: “it was either consciously or unconsciously influenced by Goethe's celebrated novel of 1774, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which Napoleon read no fewer than six times during the Egyptian campaign”
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray: “a country where Werther is still read and the Wahlverwandtschaften of Goethe is considered an edifying moral book”
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: “they consisted of _Paradise Lost_, a volume of _Plutarch’s Lives_, and the _Sorrows of Werter_.”
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth: “What is it you’re reading there? Did you hear me asking you, my dear?’ ‘THE SORROWS OF WERTHER,’ replies my lady, as well as I could hear.”
2666 by Roberto Bolaño: “a teacher recommended that he read The Sorrows of Young Werther, in whose hero he would find a kindred spirit.”
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño: “He's the kind of fucking idiot (pardon my language) who committed suicide after reading Werther.”
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides: “"Suicide is a trope," ... "You've got The Sorrows of Young Werther"”
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: “His favorite was Goethe; he must have read The Sorrows of Young Werther at least half a dozen times.”
Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle: “even as the great Goethe, in passionate words, had to write his Sorrows of Werter, before the spirit freed herself, and he could become a Man.”
The Torrents of Spring by Ivan Turgenev: “He went in to look at Danneker's Ariadne, which he did not much care for, visited the house of Goethe, of whose works he had, however, only read _Werter_, and that in the French translation.”
Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of Japanese Inner Life by Lafcadio Hearn: “There have been a few rare exceptions, including the marked success of a literal translation of the Sorrows of Werther.”
Onna Keizu by Izumi Kyōka: “The job was the long-promised one, a literal translation of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther. "They say the great poet once clinked wine glasses with Schiller and swore that their verse would grow nobler with the years, like this wine," said the lady, holding her glass to the fire, proud of her learning. [auto-translated]”